27/04/2023
Published in
Omnes
Juan Luis Caballero
Professor at School of Theology
At the heart of the Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul makes a precious reflection on the ministry of reconciliation. One of the core issues involved here is that of the newness that Christ has procured for us through his redemptive work. Let us look at it in context.
The ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:11 - 6:10)
After speaking of the hope in the resurrection of Christians, beginning with 2 Cor 5:11, Paul insists that we must give an account of our conduct before God1 and that he is unveiled before God and before the Corinthians themselves2. For this reason, he is urged by the love of Christ, who, by dying for us, has offered us reconciliation with the Father. It is of this reconciliation that Paul is the minister. In his reasoning, the Apostle, in the first place, defends his ministry by saying that God knows his conscience and that he expects the Corinthians to do the same, valuing what is unseen, the heart3, more than appearances or external attributes4. Secondly, Paul situates his apostolate in the whole of the divine salvific plan5. Finally, the Apostle exhorts not to receive God's grace in vain and emphasizes the honesty of his ministry by means of a picture of his sacrificed existence for the sake of the gospel6.
"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature" (2 Cor 5:14-17).
"For the love of Christ compels us to consider that if one died for all, all died. And Christ died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again" (vv. 14-15). Paul's submission to God and to the Corinthians is founded not only on the fear of God7 but also on the love of Christ8, manifested and proven in his death for all (and in the place of all) on the cross9. In Christ's saving work, this death(dying to sin) is linked to resurrection(living); thus, participation in Christ's suffering is the door to the power of resurrection10. The response to this love on the part of those who live (the baptized) is the submission of one's own life for love, as Paul has done since his conversion11.
"So thenwe henceforth know no man after the flesh: if we once knew Christ after the flesh, we know him no more after the flesh. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old has passed away, the new has begun" (vv. 16-17). In the appearance-heart line, Paul says that he has left behind his way of valuing people (Jesus and the cross) according to a merely human perspective (of appearance: status, skill rhetoric, etc.), which was the one he had before he met the Lord. This does not mean that he is not interested in the historical Jesus12. His resurrection provides a new framework with which to see both Christ and Christians13 as belonging to a new order14 , even if this new existence15 can only be perceived with the heart, not in appearances16. All those who hope to participate fully in the resurrection of Christ17 already have a foretaste in the Spirit18. In this new creation is restored, in Christ19, the image and the glory that man partially lost in Adam20.
"He reconciled us to himself through Christ" (2 Cor 5:18-21).
"All things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. For God himself was in Christ reconciling the world to himself without asking them to account for their sins, and he has put the message of reconciliation in us" (vv. 18-19). Paul directs the reflection he has just made to the invitation of v. 20. The new creation is the result of the reconciliation worked by the death of Christ21, actualized by accepting the apostolic preaching. The ministry of reconciliation is the ministry of the new life-giving covenant22. This reconciliation, which brings peace and friendship23 between former enemies,24 is the initiative of God himself, who procures it through Christ and offers it through his ministers. In Christ, humanity (the first creation), separated from God because of Adam's sin, has been reunited with him25. The work of Christ has already been accomplished, but the world is not yet fully new creation, because it is necessary that, thanks to the ministry of reconciliation, it be preached and accepted by all men26.
"Therefore, we act as envoys of Christ, and it is as if God himself were exhorting through us. In the name of Christ we ask you to be reconciled to God. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him" (vv. 20-21). Paul presents himself as Christ's ambassador: to reject him is to reject the one who sent him27. 27 He exercises his ministry by appealing to reconciliation, to accept the grace offered by God,28 and to strive for the purification of whatever hinders God from carrying out sanctification. Paul recalls, in v. 21, that it was the death of Christ that freed us from the wrath of God, reconciling us with him30. 30 Christ offered himself, without sin, for all, bearing the consequences of our sins, so that we might receive, in him, the righteousness of God.
1 2 Cor 7:1.
2 Cor 4:2; 6:11; 7:3.
3 Cf. 1 Sam 16:7.
4 2 Cor 5:11-13; cf. 4:18.
5 2 Cor 5:14-21.
6 2 Cor 6:1-10.
7 2 Cor 5:11.
8 Rom 5:5; 8:35; Eph 3:19.
9Cor 15:3; Rom 8:32.
10 2 Cor 4:17-14.
11 Gal 2:20; 2 Cor 2:14-16.
12 1 Cor 7:10; 9:14; 11:1, 23-25; 15:3-8.
13 2 Cor 5:14-15.
14 1 Cor 15:20, 23; 2 Cor 4:6; 5:17.
15 Is 65:17; 66:22; Ezek 36:26; Gal 6:15.
16 2 Cor 3:3; 5:12.
17 2 Cor 4:14; 5:1-4.
18 2 Cor 4:10-11; 5:5.
19 1 Cor 15:49; 2 Cor 3:18; 4:4; Rom 8:29.
20 Rom 5:12-21.
21 2 Cor 5:14-15; Rom 5:10.
22 2 Cor 3:6-9; 6:3.
23 Is 52:7; 54:10; 65:17-18.
24 Rom 5:10; Eph 2:14-16.
25 Rom 8:20-22; Col 1:20-22.
26 Is 52:7; Eph 6:15.
27 Lk 10:16.
28 2 Cor 6:1; 13:5.
29 1 Cor 6:9-11; Gal 5:4; Rom 8:13; 11:22; Phil 2:12.
30 Rom 5:9-11.
31 Is 53:5-6.